Trump believes in climate change but wants a better deal – US ambassador to UN

President Trump is aware of climate change, but will “take care” of it on America’s own terms, US Envoy to the UN Nikki Haley told CNN. In response to Trump’s pullout from the Paris climate accord, the EU is considering economic measures.

The US president Donald Trump “knows that [the climate] is changing and that the US has to be responsible for it,” Haley told CNN host Jake Tapper, commenting on Trump’s recent decision to withdraw the US from the Paris agreement on climate change.

Calling the current UN treaty – negotiated in 2015 under the Obama administration and signed by almost 200 nations – impossible to adhere to, Haley criticized the former president for signing the US on to the accord.

Saying that everybody in the US knows that “the regulations from the Paris agreement were disadvantaging our companies,” Haley claimed that “the jobs were not attainable as long as we had to live under those regulations… The standards were set by President Obama and they couldn’t have been achieved.”

Trump will take care of the environment, but will do it his way, she told CNN.

“We’ve got a president who’s going to watch out for the environment… We are going to continue to be a leader in the environment [sic],” Haley said.

She then claimed that “the rest of the world wanted to tell us how to do it, we are saying we will do it, but we will do it under our terms.”

Trump is, however, a climate change believer, according to Haley, though he has often slammed the idea.

“He believes pollutants are part of the equation, that is the fact,” she said. “Just because we got out of a club doesn’t mean we don’t care about the environment.”

Earlier this week, Trump announced his decision to quit the international deal, which was considered a major achievement by his predecessor. Saying that he acted “in order to protect America and its citizens,” the Republican president claimed the agreement, which seeks to drastically limit carbon dioxide and other emissions from fossil fuel consumption in order to slow global warming, was not really about the climate.

The Paris deal is “more about other countries gaining financial advantages over the US,” Trump said, adding that his administration aims to negotiate on new, “fair” terms.

The EU is considering taking economic measures in response to Trump’s controversial decision to quit the agreement. These could include halting trade talks, forging closer ties with Russia, and imposing heavy carbon taxes on US exports.

In a tit-for-tat retaliation, former EU Parliament President Martin Schulz has pledged to respond to Donald Trump’s pullout by refusing to engage in transatlantic trade talks. “If the US drops out of the climate agreement... for European trade policy, this means that American production sites don’t need to abide by the climate goals,” Germany’s center-left candidate for chancellor said, as cited by Politico on Thursday, speaking at the WDR Europa Forum in Berlin.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said that Washington’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement means that new partnerships should be established, including with Russia.

“I can clearly see that America quits the current power game, and the decision on the Paris climate agreement only confirms it. For us and for everyone else, this means that we must move forward and form new alliances, with Russia being an important partner,”

Kern told RIA Novosti news agency, speaking on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).Europe should in no way change its climate plans just because president Trump does not want to be part of them, Kern stressed.

Alternatively, the EU “should enhance cooperation” in the field, and strengthen its alliances with other global powers, including Russia, China, and India, he said.